Turkey won’t take part in any future plan to stop migrants entering the European Union unless the bloc gives visa-free access to Turkish citizens, the country’s EU affairs minister said.
Turkey will continue to implement the current migration arrangement that helped slow the flow of refugees into Greece to virtually nothing, but “without visa liberalization Turkey won’t be part of any new mechanism,” Omer Celik told reporters in Bratislava, Slovakia, on Saturday.
EU leaders turned to Turkey for help after almost a million people streamed into Europe last year. Celik said that while the current plan was working well it may not be sufficient to cope with future surges of migrants from the Middle East and Africa.
Foreign ministers took no decisions at their two-day meeting that wrapped up on Saturday afternoon in the capital of Slovakia, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU. A delegation from the EU led by foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini is due in Ankara on Sept. 9 to continue discussions with Turkish officials.
